The Enigma
by audiodream
Summary: This picks up a year after the season 2 finalle, the whole gang is back together. But there is always trouble lurking around the corner. Especially when Ed isn't sure he can trust one of his team.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer for whole story: **I do not own anything to do with Las Vegas or any of the characters. I will never own anything to do with it.

Please **READ/REVIEW/CRITICISE, **i like to get reviews it tells me whether or not you like it.

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**Las Vegas- The Enigma**

By Digistorm

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**Chapter One**

ED'S OFFICE, THE MONTECITO

Ed sat in his office reading over the document in front of him, he couldn't believe that the Montecito was up for sale again after the traumatic year of Casey Manning owning the casino. He had blown it up and rebuilt it in an attempt to get back his estranged wife, Samantha Jane Marquez but instead she had left Las Vegas as far as they knew. After rebuilding he got bored and gave up on Samantha and put the casino back up for sale. Ed missed Sam, in the few months before she left he had had her followed only to find out she was helping a girl with no parents or money. At the moment the deeds to the casino were in a guys' name called Mr Baldwin, he was trying to find a buyer. Before Casey Manning the Montecito group seemed like a little close net family, him being the father figure to them all. He felt like he had let her down, he had made it up to the others but she wasn't around to make it up to and he and the Montecito family missed her.

Nessa and Delinda returned from their quest in England after Nessa broke her collarbone whilst escaping from her kidnappers who were convinced that her father was alive. Nessa was now in touch with her sister Donna, but she had resumed her role at being the 'Ice Queen' as they called her. She was in charge of the casino floor. Delinda was herself, with the unbelievable genius IQ, but she never seemed to consult her brain before saying things. This made him smile, that was his little girl.

Then there was Danny and Mike, after Danny's father had died he took over his father's business for a couple of months but finally three months ago he returned as head of surveillance underneath Ed, who was the president, at the Montecito. Mike had returned at the same time after touring with his Aunt: Gladys Knight. He was himself as usual, a know it all.

Then there was Mary, she had returned and broke it off with her millionaire boyfriend after two months in Hawaii, something about a disagreement or something. Anyhow they were all back together apart from Sam, and that was one of Ed's many regrets. Not being able to look after her, he should have tried harder to get Casey away from the Montecito

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THE PALMS

Bobby Elway sat at his desk opposite the woman sat in his office, he had put advertisements out for a Casino Host. He never thought he would get someone so capable. He knew her ofcourse, Ed Deline had put warnings out to all casino's on the strip that if she turned up for a job to make sure she stay put and to inform him. It was one of his that had quit but he wanted her back.

"Ok, why don't you go look around the casino floor while I look over your résumé and I'll call you once I finish." He told her she smiled and headed to the casino floor. He immediately picked up his phone and pressed speed dial 1. "Yeah Ed it's Bobby Elway at the Palms, that host you told us to look out for well she's here. Yeah I got her waiting on the casino floor for my decision. You got ten minutes to get here." He hung up.

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THE MONTECITO

"Hey, Danny, you and Mike look over the security and surveillance I got to go see an old friend at the Palms, I'll be back soon. I'm taking Nessa with me get Sandra to take over. I don't want anything going wrong whilst I'm gone. That would be all we need." He told Danny as he put his suite jacket on and did his tie up.

"Yeah ok Ed. What should I do about the new Whales arriving, we got two right. Well I know you think Sam's replacement is alright she isn't able to handle one at the best of times I mean come on Ed, I think we should re-advertise." Danny told him. Ed gave him a confused look.

"I'll think about it." Ed said whilst leaving the surveillance room. He was going to bring Nessa with him to persuade Sam to come back; it would also hopefully cheer her up.

"Nessa, come with me Sandra is going to take over. I'll tell you in the car, come." He said without even stopping his stride. He was anxious to get over there in time before Sam left. He hadn't heard from her since she quit, she hadn't even said goodbye to anyone.

Five minutes later they were in the car headed towards the Palms.

"Ed, where are we going?" Nessa asked he hadn't told her yet and she was growing restless.

"I asked the other presidents of the casino's on the strip to notify me if Sam turned up for a job interview, I just got a call from Bobby Elway. Sam's at the Palms and I want her back at the Montecito. With Manning gone there is no reason she can't come back." Ed told Nessa who immediately squealed which Ed had learnt a while ago meant women were happy.

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THE PALMS, CASINO FLOOR

Sam had missed Las Vegas, even though she hadn't grew up here it was where her heart lay. She missed the people, the money and the gambling. Hopefully she would get this job and she could get right back to hosting people's stays on the strip. The Palms was the next best thing than the Montecito, on her way over to the Palms she had a quick look at the Montecito, last she heard it had been blown up now it looked as good as ever, Casey had obviously rebuilt it and as ever it was buzzing with life.

"Sam?" A familiar voice interrupted her contemplation's. She turned around it was Ed Deline and Nessa Holt, two people she never expected to run into in the Palms. Although, knowing Ed it was highly unlikely that it was a coincidence.

"Ed? What are you doing here?" Sam asked turning around and completely ignoring the crowds.

"I heard from a friend that you arrived back in town so I thought I would come down and see how you're doing and offer your old job back, your replacement really can't keep up. And to be honest, the Montecito is missing you." He told her. Nessa just stayed quiet knowing they were both as stubborn as each other.

"I can't not with Casey, It just wouldn't work out-"

"Sam, you have to come back. Before you left the Montecito were doing better than ever, we need you to get it back running to its full capacity. We need to stick together now, he's selling the Montecito, he is no longer in Las Vegas." Ed told her.

"Yeah I mean come on Sam, before you left the girls won every argument now Danny and Mike are winning and there ego's are getting way too big. We need you to watch our back." Nessa said smiling. Sam hugged her.

"I missed you guys." She whispered.

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"Mary, Mary! Could you get me two front row tickets to the Elvis impersonator guy tonight? Oh and be a doll and get me a latte, two sugars." Julia said walking off. Mary looked after her in shock, where had the manors gone. She wasn't her servant.

"Can you believe that? The cheek of it. Anyway any ideas where Ed has gone, he left in quite a rush." Danny asked walking besides her handing her a latte for herself.

"No, I hate that girl. I blame Sam for leaving, she never should have gone then there would be no need for Julia and therefore I would have a better working environment to work in. So what's up with you and Jenny?" Mary asked taking a sip of her latte.

"We called it off, I just can't concentrate on a relationship at the moment don't know why. I got to run I got to drop this surveillance footage to the surveillance room. Thanks." He said running off in the direction of the security guards station. Mary looked around and noticed Nessa heading back to the Casino floor.

"Oh, Nessa where have you and Ed been?" She asked smiling.

"We went to the Palms, Ed got word that Sam was back in town. Our girl is back in so hopefully Ed will fire that girl Julia. She never really did fit in did she?" Nessa said checking a deck of cards over.

"Sam's back? Yay, the whole group back together again. We should ask Delinda to throw a party at Mystique for Sam, but not until Julia has left. So where are they?" Mary asked looked across the floor.

"Ed's helping her get her things, she's been staying somewhere for the past week until she got a job. I don't know you'll have to ask her or Ed." Nessa said replacing a pair of die on the craps table.

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"So you been staying with you're 'little sister'?" He asked looking around the tiny apartment. It was not the kind of place he expected Sam to stay at.

"Yeah, we all just got back so they said I could stay a little while until I got a job. It's just been the summer holidays for them so I took her and Ash on holiday to a couple of places, we went Australia, France and Italy. It did us all good and surprisingly fun, just like when I was a kid." Sam said packing her things up. "Which room will I be in? I need one with a safe." She said quickly changing the subject from anything to do with her personally. Ed decided to let it drop.

"You will be having the same one as last time, no one has stayed in it since, your room was one of the ones that didn't need to be rebuilt." He said. "Why do you need a safe?"

"I'm sorry about all that Ed, he shouldn't have done that." Sam apologised whilst being selectively deaf.

"No don't say sorry, it wasn't your fault he did it you didn't." He told her hugging her.

"So have we got any big whales in at the moment?" She asked getting out of the hug and straight to business.

"Yeah we got two coming in today, I can let you look after one although Julia has to have one until she works her notice. She won't be happy, although I think everyone else will be." Ed told her with a grin.

"That bad? Good I showed up when I did then isn't it?" Sam said with a smile. She had missed the Montecito, as she had said once before they were the closest thing to family at the moment and she had liked being around them. "So who is buying the Montecito? Anyone we know?" Sam asked curious.

"I don't know yet. There have been several rumours but none of it has been confirmed, although Mr Baldwin, the guy with the deeds at the moment, told me himself that there has been a secret offer put in and that when the time comes could I run a credit check." Ed told her.

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After collecting Sam's things and having them brought back to her suite Sam had insisted in popping out. When he asked where she was going she just said it was personal. Ed knew that that silently meant 'back off it's none of your business'. Everyone knew that. At the Montecito, his team was like a family to Ed, they were all close and all depended on each other. Somewhere along the line he had become a father figure for all of them, none of them had there own father in their lives any more, apart from Delinda ofcourse. Ed could figure out all of his Montecito 'children', even Delinda, who most of the time was on her own page. He knew the archilles heels of all of them, apart from Sam. Sam was an enigma. She managed to be close to all of them and yet keep her arms distant. She never offered information about herself; even if you found it out by yourself she would neither agree nor disagree with you. Confirm or deny. That was why, whilst sitting in his office on a Friday evening, with the information incriminating one of his own sat on his desk in front of him he could not just shred it and discard it from his mind, because he simply did not truly know the woman that was Samantha Jane Marquez.

**TBC...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two-

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Ed had been wondering about the photographs for two weeks now and still hadn't come to his conclusion about them. They were pretty incriminating, and believable. Ever since someone had sent them to him he had wondered back to the time when they had thought Sam was dipping in the casino's funds by laundering money, and how the man that she had been sent into spy on seemed to recognise her, something he said bugged him. It just seemed off and Ed knew that normally when something seemed off it was, especially at 'the company'.

At the CIA he was trained to trust he instincts, which had also been trained to be at their best. At the moment he was not sure which to follow; his heart or his instincts. If he followed his instincts he would spy on Sam and make sure she was never not surveilled.

On the other hand if he followed his heart, he would retrieve the photographs from his safe behind the painting on his south wall and shred them. He was discturbed from his musings as his computer beeped, alerting him of the happening transaction in Sam's account. He cliscked a few buttons and discovered that Sam had just recieved an amount of $4,608,454 from an untraceable account in the Cayman Islands. This was not good, he typed Sam's name into the computer IQ and waited for it to trace her. She was say at the bar with a man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, making it impossible for Ed to run him through the facial recognition system.

"Damn!" He said slamming his hand down on the table, causing the warrant for a few of his employees, including Danny to look up into his office. He smiled and they looked away. He looked closer at the CCTV by the bar and saw that both the man, and Sam had their PDA's out. 'Probably checking her balance,' He thought sourly whilst all the time glaring at the images before him.

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Sam smiled warely at the man infront of her. Through all of this she had not been all to happy to see him after fourteen years. It seemed like an eternity ago, so much has changed. She had changed. She realised that she was staring when he looked at her and smiled.

"What? Have I got something on my face?" He asked with an equally warely smile.

"Yeah, those ridiculous sunglasses, I'm sure my colleagues are getting suspicious, this is Las Vegas so you do need sunglasses but not inside. Look, I know this was...a new beginning for us but I want you to know if you revert...to your old ways I will not have anything to do with you." She told him. "And if I find out that you have lied to me I'll find a way to make it mutual, understand?" She wanted to make sure they were on the same page. He nodded and smiled sadly.

"You're just like your mother was." He said and with that left. She sighed watching his retreating form, he always did that.

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"Eh, Mike, get in here for a second. Why doesn't everyone go get a coffee? You to Danny." Ed said leaning over his bannister of his office that watched over the buzzing surveillance room. Ed didn't miss the glance between Mike and Danny, it was usually Danny that was called in on the secret missions, for lack of a better term.

"Yeah sure thing, so what is it?" Mike asked as he came into Ed's office a little reluctantly. Ed closed the door and made sure the surveillance room was empty before he began.

"I'm going to ask you to do something for me and it must be completely confidential, can you do that? No one must know, no one not even Danny." Ed asked, making sure that he wanted this to be kept secret.

"Yeah sure Mr Deline." Ed almost laughed, he noticed that Mike called him 'Mr Deline' when he was slightly nervous.

"I want you to record someone's cellphone calls, aswell as her hotel suite's phone. Also, I need you to keep her on constant IQ, audio and visual will be needed in her hotel suite and I want a copy of all her files on her PDA. Got it? And remember Mike total confidence, so I want it encrypted so you can only watch it from an offsite location that only me and you will know." Ed told him, looking as if he was unfazed by asking him to do this.

"Uh, sure Ed. Just give me the name of the guest and I'll have it done by the end of the day, oh I'll also need to know the location that we will be setting it up." Mike said standing up.

"The motel room, I stayed at when I was testing you and Danny, it's all paid for and set up." He told him, Ed hesitated before continuing. "It isn't a guest, I want you to do it to Sam." He told him waiting for the sea of questions he knew would be getting soon enough.

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MONTECITO, LAS VEGAS, CASINO FLOOR, PIT 4

Julia hadn't been at the casino for too long and yet she knew that they were a tight knit group, they acted almost like a family. All of them close but each of them hiding their own secret. She had learned a while ago, her second months of working there actually, that Ed Deline's biggest secret was that he was a former employee of the CIA. It hadn't really shocked her, although she was shocked that everyone that was in the 'inner' circle knew. Julia was thirty five years old and a damn good casino host. She knew she could be snotty at times, but she was ok. Six years ago she was the hottest and best casino host in Vegas, that was until Benedict Ladd, a top casino host in his time, had decided to train a protege, Samantha Jane Marquez. Since Benedict left the game Sam had been the talk of the town. Stealing her client list, jobs and reputation. Sam then left vegas and she was working her way back to the top, now she was back and most of her 'whales' were asking for her. It made her angry. Benedict wasn't even given credit for training Samantha, no he and Sam didn't tell anyone. Julia suspected she was the only one that knew. Not even Big Ed Deline.

Now Julia watched with envy as Sam sat at Mystique with her 'girlfriends', Mary, Delinda and Nessa. She took a deep breathe and approached Sam. Once she was within reach she tapped Sam on the shoulder. She turned around with a smile that any casino host can pull off, well any good one.

"Sammy, it's me Julia Wench, when was it four/five years ago at the palms? Oh that was so good, how's Benedict?" She asked, faking her excitement the best she could. She noticed, but chose to ignore, the baffled glances she got from the 'girlfriends'.

"Wench? five years ago. I remember fine, last time I saw you we were trying to work together. I was trying to catch a big whale and you ruined my chances by spilling hot coffee down me." Sam said, her smile gone from the horizon.

"Yeah well I changed, now I'm just taking jobs after you leave them in the lurch, it seems to be much easier. Besides, you can't still be mad as I recall you got yourself revenge. Remember Hernando?" Julia asked with a sly smiled. "I remember, his father nearly had a heart attack when we found you and his son, Hernando, in bed together." Julia was annoyed when she didn't get Sam to blush. "So, I just got back from learning that I am now unemployed. Tell me, Samantha, why is it these people find you so special? They don't know you like I do, no one knows you like I do." Julia sneered spitefully at her.

"Right, that's enough. I'm getting security, you're an evil b." Delinda said, as if she was disinterested, although Julia could tell she was eager to find out what she meant.

"Nah, don't Delinda. I can handle this, she's just a wannabe casino host. This is all just because I got more clients than you isn't it. Well, I'll let you know something, _Julia_, you'll never be as good as me." Sam paused and and leaned close to her ear so no one else can hear. "You're right by the way you're the only one that knows me the way you do, no one else has seen my fist as much as you." And with that Sam punched her right in the mouth. "That's for Benedict." She leant over and whispered.

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"Sam? Why, what has she done?" Mike asked and then shook his head, "You know what? Don't tell me, you'll tell me when and if I need to know. I'll get it done ASAP." Mike said and left the office.

Ed spent the rest of the day watching Sam on the monitors, with each section of footage suspecting her more and more.

**TBC...**

Note: Things aren't as they seem...

Please **review!**


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